Page 4 of Kailirex (Brides of the Mylos #6)
CHAPTER 4
STELLA
“You ready to go?” I called out, wondering what was taking Eric so long.
He came out of his bedroom, looking agitated.
“What’s going on?” I asked him cautiously.
“I don’t think we should go out tonight,” he replied, running a hand through his hair.
“What? Why not?”
“Have you turned on the TV or looked at your phone?”
“No, why?” He knew I only carried one in case someone was trying to get a hold of me. I hated social media and phone games weren’t my thing either. In fact, the only apps I had on it that I used were Google Maps and Siri. I even preferred to call local take outs directly to order food and rode the subway or the public bus, or called an actual Yellow Cab if I needed a ride and my car wasn’t available for one reason or another. He was the one who was in charge of picking our Door Dash gigs. I was the driver and went in to pick the food up. He rode along and got out of the car to go hand the food to our customers.
He huffed. “It wouldn’t kill you to read the news, you know.”
“And get depressed with all the doom and gloom or get brain rot from sugary non-stories about how a poodle got a zebra dye job and the cops got called by some old biddy thinking the zoo lost a baby zebra? No thank you.”
He pressed his lips into a firm line. “No. Though to be fair, I only just saw the news myself when I picked my phone up just now. I have an alert for stories about the Mylos and opened the notification.”
Ugh! This was like pulling teeth!
“Okay, what about the Mylos?”
“Right,” he replied slowly. “So you know how today was Friendship Day and they were hosting that picnic thing in Central Park?”
“Yeah?” I could feel my heart sinking. Had the event turned out to be a ‘So long and thanks for all the fish’ moment with the Mylos announcing they were closing up shop and all going home? It had to be something pretty dire, after all, for my brother to have that look on his face and not want to tell me the news.
“It looks like Humans First managed to infiltrate the event and grabbed a teacher from a local school as well as some kid visiting from the Fleet. The Mylos have sent drop ships filled with warriors to track down the kidnappers, the police are on the manhunt as well, and I just think us going out and driving around is a bad idea. We might get in their way or not be able to make a delivery because of a roadblock or something.”
I dropped my keys back into the bowl. “Yeah, no.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “I hope they don’t hurt them - the kid and the teacher, I mean.”
“Yeah.” He looked as if he thought that was as unlikely as I did. Getting kidnapped in New York usually didn’t end well. Not so far as I’d ever heard, anyway.
“They got any leads?”
He shook his head. “I looked, but the updates didn’t mention anything and it only happened just over an hour ago.”
“Right.”
“Some of the politicians are making noise about it though, saying it’s a sign our people want to be left alone and the Mylos should just fuck off.”
Narrowing my eyes, I replied tersely, “I was afraid you were going to tell me they’d decided to leave on their own because of all the shit they’ve had to put up with. Humans First, greedy politicians and megacorps, not to mention the Star Spangled Killer managed to get the jump on one of their people.”
“Well, it seems the Mylos announced a children’s educational TV series they intend to distribute for free via PBS and the Armed Forces Network, the BBC, and a bunch of other places at first. That’s got the politicians and Humans First supporters in almost as much of a lather as the kidnapping.”
“A children’s educational TV program?” Now I wished I had paid attention to the news today.
He laughed. “I knew that would catch your interest. Yeah, they say it looks like a mash up idea of Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, Big Blue Marble, and 3-2-1 Contact.”
My jaw dropped open. “That’s an awfully large range of ages.”
He shrugged. “It seems the beginning reading and numbers work will be in English and Mylos and the Fleet children will also be watching it, as will children all around the galaxy.”
I tried to imagine what such a show would look like. “So, humans, Mylos, and puppets?”
He shrugged. “I guess. Apparently, the goody bags sent home with kids all included invitations to come try out for a role. The show’s being called Playtime Fleet.”
I suddenly really, really wanted to get involved with that show.
“Think we could move our appointments up?” I asked.
He gave me a sardonic grin. “Somehow I thought you might ask that. I emailed and asked, just in case they decided to end the program soon because of this.”
“Let’s hope not. I think they’ll only leave if our governments tell them to, you know.”
He sighed. “Yeah, maybe. But it might get harder to join any of the programs.”
I nodded in agreement. “Then we need to get our butts in there ASAP.” I wasn’t about to let some assholes take away our dreams, especially not now when such a juicy morsel was dangled right in front of me. While at my appointment, I fully intended to ask if they were taking applications for a film crew for the show, or possibly even a writer. After all, if you don’t ask, you can’t get, right? I felt giddy at the prospect of finding out that they were and getting the chance to sign on. Then I immediately felt guilty because while I was being all happy and shit, some poor kid and a teacher were out there terrified out of their minds while extremists held them.
“How about I cook that lasagne we bought from Costco and eat it while we watch a K-Drama?” he suggested.
It did sound like a good way to distract us from why we weren’t going out to Door Dash for a few bucks to tide us over until our appointments. Maybe after we’d binged a few episodes, there’d be an update saying the Mylos warriors had recovered them safe and sound and gotten the bad guys. Maybe.
“Sure, and the Ben and Jerry’s after?”
“Of course.” Like the good big brother he was, he turned to go into the kitchen and get started. I followed him to pull out some wine to get us started. This seemed a night for a bottle or two if any ever did.